In an effort to expand undergraduate study-abroad opportunities in the Arab world, America-Mideast Educational and Training Services Inc., more commonly known as Amideast, will offer programs in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Tunisia next year.

The nonprofit organization, which has decades of experience in the Middle East, will offer year-, semester-, and summer-long programs. While intensive Arabic-language instruction will be a component of each, the programs will also include Middle East and North African studies, said Jerry Bookin-Weiner, who is in charge of the project. Both beginning and advanced Arabic speakers will be able to participate.

Students’ interest in the Middle East has grown rapidly in recent year. More than 2,500 Americans participated in study-abroad programs in the region in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, up from about 1,000 two years earlier.

Amideast has long worked with other study-abroad providers in the region, such as the School for International Training and the Council for International Educational Exchange, said Mr. Bookin-Weiner. But the new effort will mark the first time it will directly run such programs. The first opened last fall in Morocco, with 16 students, and the rest will open in 2009. He said the programs should eventually be able to absorb as many as 700 students.

The programs are being operated in partnership with language institutes or universities in the countries in which they are located, he said, and will be developed with the help of an Arabic-language advisory board and a consortium of 17 American colleges and universities with programs in Arabic and Middle East studies. —Beth McMurtrie